Slideshow: Pork on the wild side

Finca Montefrio, a farm near Cortegana, produces organic jamon ibérico and hosts visiting tourists

The pigs feed sparingly on maize and wheat for most of the year, but when the acorns fall in late autumn they embark on the montanera, gorging on up to 10kg of acorns per day

The tour operator A Taste of Spain runs trips with different gastronomic themes. On its ham-focused trips, visitors are invited into Lazo in the village of Cortegana, a producer of fine ibérico

After being salted and dried, the hams are aged for as long as three years

Workers hanging up the pork legs

A slice of the genuine article - the spots of white within the grain are crystallised concentrations of oleic acid, a sign of real acorn-fed ham

A worker prepares a ham

The aged hams, the exterior speckled with natural moulds, which are being increasingly appreciated by foreign as well as Spanish food lovers

Children arriving at a matanza, a traditional fiesta when pigs are slaughtered

The pigs are dispatched swiftly and humanely, and the meat prepared for a family feast

Women preparing the meat. The celebrations often involve a mix of fresh pork and cured jamon from a previous year's matanza

The pig's intestines being washed in a stream